1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having a function of transmitting and receiving electronic mail.
2. Description of Related Art
A related art image forming apparatus automatically forwards electronic mail received to another device based on a forward setting so as to reduce an increase in traffic caused by a state that the electronic mail is repeatedly transmitted and received within a network, that is, an infinite loop state of the electronic mail. Such a related art image forming apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Un-examined Patent Application Publication No. H10-207795, for example.
A user of such a related art image forming apparatus disclosed in the above document, however, is unable to know the forward setting of another device beforehand in a case of performing the forward setting thereof. Consequently, for example, in a case where the forward setting is mistakenly performed among multifunctional peripherals X, Y, and Z as illustrated in FIG. 16, all the electronic mail received by the multifunctional peripheral X is forwarded to the multifunctional peripheral X again. As a result, the electronic mail is likely to fall in to the infinite loop state, that is, loop mail, without intention of the user. Therefore, the user needs to grasp the forward setting of another device within the network beforehand to reduce such loop mail.
The present invention provides an image forming apparatus capable of reducing occurrences of forwarding loop mail to another device in a case where the loop mail is forwarded to the image forming apparatus thereof through a plurality of devices within a network.